October Ogre

Review: It's Halloween in Green Lawn and twins Bradley and Brian and their friends Nate and Lucy have been invited to a party at the local Shangri-La hotel, which has been transformed for the occasion into a haunted house, in October Ogre, the tenth early chapter book in this series of "Calendar Mysteries" by Ron Roy.

The four youngsters are met outside by a menacing ogre, who greets them at the door. After warning them to be careful inside, he tells them to "Follow the green footprints". A witch meets them inside and offers to take them to the green footprints. But what strikes Bradley as odd is that they seem to be alone. "What happened to the other kids who came in here?" he asks the witch. "No questions!" she replies. "Just follow the footprints," she says before quickly disappearing. The footprints lead to a disembodied ogre's head, filled with candy. Brian rushes ahead to grab a piece … and promptly disappears in the darkness. Where has everyone disappeared to, and more importantly, where is Brian?

October Ogre is a delightfully entertaining entry in this series. The kids are obviously having fun in the haunted house, but are a little scared too, especially after Brian vanishes, seemingly before their very eyes. The three remaining friends have to figure out the mystery of where he went to … assuming he wasn't made into witchy stew, poured into bowls and served with crackers! One of the better books in the series to date, one young readers will most certainly enjoy.

October Ogre is labeled by the publisher as RL: 2.2, appropriate for readers aged 6 to 9. Lexile measure: 400L.

Acknowledgment: Random House provided a copy of October Ogre for this review.